Sharing & Wearing Flowers for Women's Pelvic Health

May 16, 2014April 28, 2015

Practice What You Preach

By the time we are parents, it may be tough for us to know what’s normal about our own bladder habits, let alone know how to impart proper potty training – lifelong bladder health! – to our children. Our recurring guest contributor, Jessica Keaney, MSPT, has shared the following post about this very topic…..

Practice What You Preach. . .To Your Children

As a women’s health and pelvic floor physical therapist, I stress the importance of healthy bladder habits to my patients — use the bathroom when you actually need to (addressing urinary urgency/frequency issues), don’t push or strain when you pee, actually sit on the toilet to urinate (NO hovering, lining the seat with toilet paper as necessary in public restrooms), wipe from front to back, progressively hydrate during the day (as opposed to downing those 3 glasses of water when you realize it’s been 6 hours and you’ve had nothing to drink), and avoid using the bathroom “just in case” simply because there may not be a bathroom accessible when you go out for a few hours. Healthy bladder habits are just as important to pass along to our kids—these are lifelong habits that should be instilled from the potty training era, from the 6 year old doing the “potty dance” as to not interrupt play time, to the “I don’t need to go, Mom” of all ages before the long family car ride, and to the adolescent girl who squats and pushes when she pees because that’s what all her friends do when they use the bathroom. We stress healthy eating habits and hygiene in the childhood years. . .start adding health bladder habits to that list!!